To be sure, both or either being solved will go a long way towards fixing these issues, as will good team defense. The problem is team defense requires players be available to follow their assignment, close out on shooters, and be available to help on defense when needed.

When bigs are boxing out near the basket, they can’t do much else besides gun for a close rebound. When guards and wings are scrambling for loose balls, they have no time to recover if a player on the opposing team gets the rebound. This often places them far from their assignment, and leaves passing and cutting lanes wide open for a quick pick and roll, and even more often, makes the rebounder either wide open as his competitor for the board hurtles past him, or able to nab a quick assist to the man they are no longer covering.

The proof?

Isaiah: "Last year we had that mindset of, 'We’re not that good but we’re gonna play harder than you, and you’re gonna know we’re here.'"

A lack of effort, nor a lack of personnel will turn a top-five defense into a near-last defense. More importantly, on nights the Celts weredestroyed on the boards, they also managed to turn several of the worst teams in the league at shooting the three into lethal sharpshooting teams with three-point percentages near or at the top of the league if it were a season average (for example, the Wizards were shooting under .316 from deep before facing Boston, while shooting an insane 47.6% last night; check out the last two breakdowns of RBC's issues here and here for more examples).

Shockingly (OK, not really), all of these teams' shooting came back to earth playing other squads.

A good bill of health and a better buy-in will help, to be sure. But it is not the answer - either Boston needs to find a beast on the boards on its own roster (which is getting less likely by the quarter), or it needs to make a trade to address this issue.